Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia [Paperback]

Wheeler Winston Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2009

Wheeler Winston Dixon engages readers in an overview of noir and fatalist film from the mid-twentieth century to the present, ending with a discussion of television, the Internet, and dominant commercial cinema. Beginning with the 1940s classics, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia moves to the "Red Scare" and other ominous expressions of the 1950s. The dark cinema of the 1960s reflected the tensions of a society facing a new and, to some, menacing era of social expression.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Displays a true cinephile's fascination with the gunslingers and femmes fatales of film noir, and the dark, uneasy world they inhabit. Wide-ranging and packed with compelling detail. This work will be an invaluable addition to bookshelves of fans, academics, and completists alike."
Mikita Brottman, Pacifica Graduate Institute

From the Inside Flap

Wheeler Winston Dixon engages readers in an overview of noir and fatalist film from the mid-twentieth century to the present, ending with a discussion of television, the Internet, and dominant commercial cinema. Beginning with the 1940s classics, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia moves to the "Red Scare" and other ominous expressions of the 1950s. The dark cinema of the 1960s reflected the tensions of a society facing a new and, to some, menacing era of social expression.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (April 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813545218
• ISBN-13: 978-0813545219
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wheeler Winston Dixon is the James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies, Coordinator of the UNL Film Studies Program, Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. His newest books include A History of Horror (Rutgers University Press, 2010); Film Noir and The Cinema of Paranoia (Rutgers University Press and Edinburgh University Press, 2009); A Short History of Film, written with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, (Rutgers University Press and I.B. Tauris, 2008), which has gone through five printings, was issued in a Spanish translation from Ediciones Robinbook in November, 2009 as Breve historia del cine, and is forthcoming as an audio book from University Press Audiobooks in 2010; Film Talk: Directors at Work (Rutgers University Press, 2007); Visions of Paradise: Images of Eden in the Cinema (Rutgers University Press, 2006); American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations (Rutgers University Press, 2006); and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood (Southern Illinois UP, 2005). In 2003, Dixon was honored with a retrospective of his films at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and his films were acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum, in both print and original format.

Customer Reviews

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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars film noir and the cinema of paranoia, December 17, 2009

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daniela mirra (torino, italy, IT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia (Paperback)

molto interessante. I testi universitari italiani sono decisamente meno dettagliati ed appassionanti come un libro

di narrativa